DUSHANBE, October 23, 2009, Asia-Plus – – On Thursday October 22, the Resident of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon signed a joint statement in Moscow, Itar-Tass reports.
The two leaders have charged co-chairmen of the Tajik-Russian intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation – Russia’s Energy Minister Sergey Shamtko and Tajikistan’s Vice-Premier Asadullo Ghulomov – to develop a draft program of economic cooperation between Russia and Tajikistan for 2010-2012.
Medvedev and Rahmon noted that the present stage of development of relations between the two countries offered prospects for further expansion of cooperation between the two countries in all fields.
They charged their relevant ministries to speed up a joint work on exploration and development of oil-and-gas fields in Tajikistan. The sides intend to implement projects in the fuel-energy sector in the future as well.
The two leaders spoke for speedy singing of a government-to-government agreement between Russia and Tajikistan on interaction in exporting military goods to the third countries. They also declared for expansion of military and military-technical cooperation for providing national and regional security.
Medvedev and Rahmon also spoke for taking measures to expand bilateral cooperation in regulating the labor migration processes in terms of protection of rights of Tajik labor migrants in Russia and protection of rights of Russian labor migrants in Tajikistan.
Both presidents expressed satisfaction with the results of the negotiations and decided to continue conducting them “on the regular basis of bilateral meetings at the highest level.”
President of Tajikistan invited President of the Russian Federation to pay a sate visit to Tajikistan at any time of convenience. The invitation was accepted with gratitude and the dates for the visit will be decided through diplomatic channels.
Speaking at a news conference following the negations, President Medvedev stressed that both sides had agreed to expand cooperation in the oil-and-gas sector.
He added that relations between the two countries in other sectors were also good. “Even under the conditions of the crisis, we are continuing to cooperate in such important directions as hydropower engineering,” he said, noting that substantial results were reached. Now, preparations are made for construction of small hydropower plants on the inner rivers of Tajikistan.
According to him, in the course of the talks they also discussed priorities of work for the next year and other integration events.
“We have agreed to develop interaction within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and consider it as an effective mechanism of providing stability and security in Central Asia,” Medvedev said.
He added that they had also discussed the current situation in Afghanistan and ways to normalize the situation in that country.
